9 Homemade Fall Latte Recipes

By the middle of October I’m usually done with pumpkin spice.

It’s a spice blend and it’s the same blend in everything, so every drink starts tasting like the last drink.

There’s no pumpkin anywhere on this list.

These run on caramelized sugar and toasted nuts, and four of them have no coffee in them at all.

Nine below.

1. Apple Cider Brown Sugar Latte

Cider cooked down with brown sugar, then coffee and milk over the top.

Boil the cider hard until it’s thick and syrupy before anything else happens.

Poured in straight from the bottle it makes a watery coffee that tastes vaguely of apple and not much else.

This is the closest thing here to a pumpkin spice latte, if that’s what you were actually after.

2. Maple Pecan Latte

Real maple syrup, and nothing else does the job.

Pancake syrup is corn syrup with coloring in it and you’ll taste that immediately.

Toast the pecans and let them cool before they go near the milk, since warm nuts turn the whole thing cloudy.

Grade A dark carries further than the amber, which is worth knowing before you reach for the expensive bottle.

3. Snickerdoodle Latte

Cinnamon and a little cream of tartar, which sounds odd and is the entire point.

Cream of tartar is what makes a snickerdoodle taste different from a cinnamon cookie, and it does the same job in a mug.

A pinch is plenty, and any more than that goes sour on you.

4. Chestnut Praline Latte

The coffee shop one, at home, and honestly better.

Jarred cooked chestnuts are the shortcut, and nobody is roasting their own for a coffee.

Blend them into the syrup, don’t steep them.

Chestnut is starchy and the flavor won’t come out on its own.

Crushed praline goes over the foam at the end and not stirred through.

5. Butterscotch Latte

Butterscotch is brown sugar and butter cooked together, which isn’t the same thing as caramel.

Caramel is sugar burnt on its own.

Stand over it while it melts.

It turns from butterscotch to bitter faster than you’d think, and there’s no rescuing it once it has.

A flake of salt on top stops it reading as a dessert.

6. Chai Tea Latte

No coffee at all, and the first of a few like that.

Simmer the spices in water first and add the milk afterwards, because milk stops them releasing anything.

Use whole spices cracked open, not ground.

Ground spice turns the whole thing muddy, and you’ll be pouring it through a fine mesh strainer either way.

Brew it far stronger than you’d drink it plain, since the milk is about to halve everything.

7. London Fog Earl Grey Latte

Earl gray, steamed milk, vanilla, and that’s the whole drink.

Steep the tea four minutes and no longer.

Past that it turns tannic and drying, and the bergamot is the first thing you lose.

Loose leaf in a tea infuser is a real step up here.

Bagged earl gray is mostly dust, and dust over-extracts in about half the time.

Vanilla extract works but vanilla syrup works better, since the extract brings alcohol with it.

8. Golden Turmeric Latte

The one that isn’t trying to taste like a pudding.

It needs black pepper and it needs fat, and neither is optional.

Turmeric doesn’t absorb without them, which is why the traditional version uses ghee.

Toast the turmeric in the dry pan for a few seconds before the milk goes in and it stops tasting raw.

9. Sweet Potato Latte

Korean goguma latte, and it’s close to a meal in a mug.

Roast the sweet potato, never boil it.

Roasting concentrates the sugar and boiling washes it straight out.

It wants a proper blender and not a whisk.

Purple sweet potato gives you the color the photos have, and orange gives you the better flavor.

Notes on Making These Without an Espresso Machine

Most of these want espresso, and most kitchens haven’t got any.

A stovetop moka pot gets closest and costs less than three coffees out.

Strong brewed coffee works if you use roughly double the grounds and half the water.

Instant espresso powder is the honest shortcut, and under this much syrup and milk nobody can tell.

What doesn’t work is drip coffee at normal strength.

The milk flattens it and you’re left with warm sweet milk that happens to be beige.

Tips for the Ones That Aren’t Coffee

Four of these have no coffee in them at all, which makes them the ones you can drink at nine at night.

The tea-based two want brewing at about double strength, since half the cup is about to be milk.

The turmeric and the sweet potato both need a real blend to stop them separating as they sit.

Anything built on spice tastes better the second day, so make more base than you need and keep it in a jar.

And all four reheat without the problem coffee has, because there’s nothing in them that turns bitter.

For the pumpkin half of the season, the homemade pumpkin coffee recipes cover the syrup and everything built on it.

And if you do have the machine, the fall Nespresso recipes go through maple, gingerbread and salted caramel.